By: AB G
Egyptians believed in an Afterlife and brought many absurd objects with them in their tomb, although crocodiles found in an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb surprised the archeologists. Most ancient Egyptians brought their riches, water, and food with them.
The ten crocodiles that the archaeologists found were mummified. Usually in ancient Egypt many pharaohs and important citizens got mummified, and to have ten crocodiles mummified, when peasants do not get mummified, was very odd. Half of them were just heads while the other five were full bodies. “Most of the time I’m dealing with fragments, with broken things,” said Bea De Cupere, an archaeozoologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and a co-author of the study. “To hear you have 10 crocodiles in a tomb. That’s special.” Surprisingly these crocodiles were in perfect shape, while most things dug up are in pieces or broken apart.
Ancient Egyptians worshipped the god Sobek and believed he created order in the universe and the Nile River when he emerged from the dark waters. Sobek was prayed to by the Egyptians because they wanted to please him and the crocodiles in the Nile River, which may be the key reason for the crocodiles in this Egyptian tomb.
The Archaeologists inferred based on the skull shape and the bony plates that the species of the crocodile was Crocodylus suchus. Crocodylus suchus is a species also known as a West African crocodile, related to the Nile Crocodile.
Sources:
https://egyptianmuseum.org/deities-sobek#:~:text=The%20people%20of%20ancient%20Egypt,been%20found%20in%20Egyptian%20tombs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/science/mummified-crocodiles-egypt-tomb.html